A Game of Go
by Bushwah
Summary: Illumi decides to play a game with Killua for the final test of the Hunter Exam.


"Killu..." Gittarakur reached inside his vest and took out a full-size goban, and almost simultaneously produced two small bowls of stones. Killua's eyes widened.

"You sound almost like..."

Gittarakur unfolded the board and put it with the stones on the floor before looking at Killua.

"...never mind."

Gittarakur pulled a tournament clock from his sleeve and set it down next to the board. He opened the bowls and took a handful of white stones, and held out his closed hand to Killua. Killua slowly placed one black stones on the board. Gittarakur paired the stones. _E__ven._

Gittarakur dropped the white stones back into their bowl. Flipping the black stone into his fingers, he brought it down on the center point.

###

By the end of the opening, it was already clear that Killua was the better player. Killua was, in fact, beginning to wonder why Gittarakur had chosen this unusual venue when he did not even seem a competent player. He looked over the board again, searching for some hidden pattern to his opponent's seemingly pointless moves.

But he found none. Every way Killua looked at the position, it seemed Black's groups were failing – not only was a group dead in the upper left corner, but the others were scattered across the board. Another group, on the bottom, had lost its base and was forced to run toward the center. Perhaps he'd focus on that group for a while...

Tick, tock.

He glanced over at the clock. Gittarakur sure had been taking his time on this move, which seemed a bit strange, given that Killua had long since analyzed it to his satisfaction. _Oh well, it isn't like I can't use the extra time._

Katchin, katchin.

Five minutes later, Gittarakur was almost in byo-yomi, and still hadn't made his move. The groups began to blur before Killua's eyes. He remembered when he learned to play, with grandpa Xeno on the other side of the goban. They'd played on a scratched-up folding board, like this one. It even had a dent in the same place in the corner.

_Exactly the same place..._

Killua looked up from the suddenly familiar grain of the wood, half expecting to see Xeno in front of him, but only his opponent's red eyes looked back.

Gittarakur reached up to the pin in his ear and pulled it out slowly, with a creaking sound. Then a pin from the top of his head, and another. Killua's eyes widened. "Illumi..."

Illumi Zaoldyeck turned his attention back to the board and, with only two periods left on his clock, placed his next stone.

###

Killua looked down, trying to focus again on the position. _I can probably kill the bottom group if I push it into the wall at the lower right. But if I don't succeed... no, I should just make profit from it, not try to kill it un__less __a good chance arises. It's already threatening my center, though... I __guess I __should probably read it out._

Killua was almost certain that sacrificing a stone in Black's group would kill, but he still hesitated to play it. _What if I made a mistake?_

He replayed the sequence in his head again, and again. _Wait, could B__lack __be__ alive? _He started over, frantically, but the stones blurred before his eyes. _Slow down. He must be dead. The clock's running. Wait, is he alive? You need to play. He must be dead. Don't mess up. Maybe he's alive..._

He'd read it out. His hand shaking, he placed a stone within Illumi's group. Just after he let go of the stone, he realized it was one space to the right of where he had meant to play. _The wrong move._

His hand had barely released the stone. _If I just slid it over... _No, the idea was childish. He had no choice but to wait for Illumi's counter and read it from there.

But Illumi wasn't playing. It wasn't until he was well into his last byo-yomi period that he glanced up at Killua, and played a knight's move away from his top stone. It was a brilliant move – not only did it give him much-needed space to make eyes, but neutralized any possible threat from Killua's misplayed stone.

They started playing faster. Killua threatened the group while defending his remaining territory. When he thought that he had Illumi walled in, he jumped into his eyespace to play the killing move.

Illumi attached to the side of one of Killua's stones, threatening to break into the center. If Killua stopped the threat, Black would live. But if Black lived, and he didn't stop the threat...

He decided to go for it. Extending from the move he had made in Black's eyespace in the corner, he blocked out all chance of Illumi making there the two eyes he needed to live.

Illumi pushed out into the center. His stones moved lightly, and Killua began to worry that he would find eyes there. But no, it didn't seem he could possibly have enough room, and anyway, with only one period remaining, Illumi didn't have much time to read.

He looked at Killua, his face expressionless. Then, he played next to Killua's earlier misplay, putting himself in atari. Killua was not even sure he had to respond to the move, but he took the final liberty, capturing four stones. Illumi played back in the space where those stones had been, endangering two of Killua's... and Killua couldn't connect.

Killua joined together the rest of his stones, which on second thought didn't really seem necessary.

Illumi captured the two stones, and two black eyes stared out at Killua.

Killua looked up at Illumi. Those same black eyes held his gaze emotionlessly.

Killua tore his eyes away, looking back at the board. The stones blurred again, but this time, they seemed to form an image of Illumi's face.

Killua grabbed a stone, and brought it down as hard as he could in the middle of the board, hoping to destroy the emerging picture entirely. But the stones merely trembled slightly. He could see Illumi's smile even without looking up.

The position came into focus again, and Killua looked at his move. _Self-atari_.

Illumi looked up at him again. Killua didn't meet his gaze, turning to Netero-san mere seconds before Illumi's clock ran out.

"I resign."

On the board, Killua was still ahead.

###

Illumi looked at Killua from the opposite side of the room of the Zaoldyeck mansion.

Flipping the black stone into his fingers, he brought it down on the center point.


End file.
